NosmoKng wrote:I don't understand all this hotter/colder based on size issue. THe only thing that happens is the amount of air needed to produce a given temperature. You still control the heat, turn the air down if it's burning hotter. That's the only difference I notice. THe big difference is response time. Finer coal is slower because air cn't gt through the bed as well.

Depends on your stove. I have a furnace and cannot manually adjust the air. There's a small amount all the time to keep the fir burning, then when heats called for, an electric damper opens up so it's either open or closed. Pea will not generate the same heat as nut and so on a cold day my arrangment cannot keep up with the houses heat loss. Nut burns hotter and there fore puts out more btu/hour. Make sense now?

Richard S. wrote:As per above you'll get faster burn with larger sizes, if for example you lived in very windy area pea coal is probably your best bet because you can control it better. You can also mix them which is called range coal, most of my customers that used pea or nut exclusively once trying that kept it. I've also had customers that would get something like 4 ton of nut and get one ton of pea or even smaller sizes like rice. I'd shoot the one ton over into one corner of the bin and they use that at night to cover the fire. Quick tip: you can also do that with ash. On a final note Stove coal is usually more.

--------edit-------------Moved this and stickied it in the hand fired forum as it's pretty common question. There was a few posts removed to get the right information on top.

Maybe at Hudson coal stove is more but from the Hazleton area down to the Dauphin county area all the breakers carry stove size coal and it is not anymore money then the rest of the sizes a real coal breaker will have all of the sizes on hand because when you break up raw coal mine run you end up with all the sizes being all of the screening is set up for the different sizes EGG Stove Chestnut Pea Buckwheat Rice Barley 04 05 The only size that is usually a different price is barley and the other 2 small sizes 04 05 The area covers over 30 breakers the Middel Anthracite field to the Southern field There is only one that I know off that does not have stove size all the time and that would be UAE Harmony mineeven all of the bagging plants have stove size coal Blaschak does Rice Pea Nut Stove Reading Kimmel and so on all have bagged stove coal

NosmoKng wrote:I don't understand all this hotter/colder based on size issue. THe only thing that happens is the amount of air needed to produce a given temperature. You still control the heat, turn the air down if it's burning hotter. That's the only difference I notice. THe big difference is response time. Finer coal is slower because air cn't gt through the bed as well.

Depends on your stove. I have a furnace and cannot manually adjust the air. There's a small amount all the time to keep the fir burning, then when heats called for, an electric damper opens up so it's either open or closed. Pea will not generate the same heat as nut and so on a cold day my arrangment cannot keep up with the houses heat loss. Nut burns hotter and there fore puts out more btu/hour. Make sense now?

It's still somewhat confusing to me. I know it's all about air flow and stove limits. I've always burnt nut but started on Pea early last spring to try it because Nut wouldn't burn slow enough to keep the heat down. Pea does this for me. This past fall was very comfortable burning Pea. But Pea does take much longer to come back up to hotter temps. And find once it gets cold out I was running the air intake contol almost open all the way and then opening the MPD alot. This made me feel I was letting lot's of heat up the chimney. The Harman seemed to be running at the upper scale of air flow. This is where Nut comes in. Also I find I have to baby sit Pea alot To get the house warm fast when it gets chilled down I have to leave stove ash door open all the way and flue pipe at max draft out. But if you forget the Stove is set this way you know where this will lead. Pea will now be a staple here as it does a nice job in warmer temps of spring and fall. I've been expiermenting with mixing. So time will tell. Hopefully by this April I'll have a better grip on it all. But at this point it seems Pea will burn hot but with my stove/chimney/house needs I have to have some of the heat going up the chimney to keep the air flow going through it.

It is how restrictive the bed of coal is...Pea has less open space therefore more restrictive to air flow...Stove has more open space therefore less restrictive to air flow...More air, more heat, quicker...Kind of like a gas motor...Dirty air filter, poor performance, bogging down, slow response to the fuel...Pull off the air filter and the same motor gets more air and it performs crisper...Now put a Holly 750 double pumper in place of the stock carb...More power...Better response...Hope this helps...

I have been reading all of the post concerning the different sized coals and have decided to put my two cents in. This season I have been burning stove coal almost exclusively in my one Jotul, which I have bricked to the top of the stove, gaining a depth to the coal bed of almost six more inches. I have been burning nut in the other Jotul 507 with stock height brick and stock cast inserts above the brick. At first while burning the stove coal I was getting short burn times. As it has been stated the larger air spaces around the stove coal compared to the spaces around nut coal would account for the lowered burn time of the stove coal. One day while loading the stove with stove coal I was watching how the coal randomally fell and heaped in the stove. I decided to try something that goes against coal burning practices. I decided that after I loaded the stove I would take my fire place shovel and compact the coal bed. What I did was take the shovel and while pressing down on top of the coal bed I made short quick stokes across the top of the coal. I was creating a sort of rolling vibration to the coal. The entire coal bed compressed down about two inches. After several minutes the coal bed was a floor filled with dancing blue ladies. I kept an eye on the stove to make sure it was running ok. I would heap the coal up before compressing so when it was compressed the coal would be level with the top of the brick. I had been running the stove at a temp of 700 F for a week straight using my new technique when loading the stove coal. At 700 F and a full load of stove coal I am getting burn times of 16 hours before reloading the stove. Prior to using this technique I was getting burn times of only 10 hours between reloads. I did try stove coal in the stock lined stove as well and found that by compressing the coal bed I had similar results. When comparing the stove with nut to the stove with stove coal I found a few differences. With the stove coal I tend to get no unburnt coal in the ash pan after shaking compared to the stove with nut. I also found the coal bed of the stove coal dropped more evenly compared to the other stove (I have a revolving round grate). I found no difference in controlling the fire between the stove with nut compared to the stove coal. Both stoves take about the same amount of time to recover after reloading. I have in the past used range coal and have also tried the technuque of covering the nut coal with a thin layer of pea and have covered stove coal with both nut an pea. Nut seemed to work better with the stove coal. This is just my two cents on the differences and my technique of burning stove coal.

The "Nut" size coal we buy in Indiana has been handled 2 or 3 times by the time I get it. Consequently there is more "Fines" in it than I desire. If I could pick up "Stove" size in PA, I figure I could rattle shake it down to "Nut" size by the time I dump it at my place.Any thoughts?The one benefit of it being so broken up is that it does burn hot for a longer period of time with a little more air from the vents. Though when it is kind of idling, it takes longer to get it going again.

There is a limit for both Nut and Pea with in the same setup I've found by burning both for 2 seasons expiermenting in different temps. I believe no matter how you set the stove you can't get Nut to burn as slow and long as Pea and vice versa. This is from buring Nut for 14 years or so. I have been running just Pea for a while since temps have warmed up days. I will burn until April or so. They make Pea for a reason. Nut for a reason.

Duengeon master wrote:Stove coal will burn better with lower draft than nut. I would experiment with both before making a commitment. Don't experiment like Al Gore and global warming, use real numbers.

I have tried Pea,Nut,and stove in my furnace and find that the pea and nut will respond quicker than the stove but the nut will not keep up with the demand with temps @-25 when temps dip below zero I am better with stove size in the furnace. I am playing around with mixing nut and stove at a 50/50 ratio to see how I like that. I just bought a 1/2 a pallet of each (nut and stove) I am burning cornwall coal I have burnt blakshak,kimmel's as well in my furnace. The blakshak is not available in stove size here.

To the snowman... I too have found that giving the top of the pile a couple of good smacks with the bottom of the shovel effective for prolonging burn time with stove coal... Another technique that I have found effective is especially if after doing some shaking and having the suspicion of some clinkers starting to form is I have a three pronged pitch fork and I just ram that through the coals down to the grates

Well, I just tried using stove coal for the first time, having used exclusively nut coal to this point. Bought a couple bags of stove just to see what the differences were. I'm now into 15 hours of burn with the stove coal, and it is still happily chugging away. With larger chunks it makes sense to me that it will burn longer than nut. Very easy to regulate temps too with the amount of air fed to the coals. I've never had that long of a good burn with nut coal without having to shake down at least once. So, when it comes time to shake, we'll see how that process goes and how long it takes to get back up to good operating temperature.

I burn exclusively nut coal. I get it by the bag locally. I have a Vogelzang pot bellied stove - all cast iron with no firebrick inside. When the coal has established a good heat output I load coal in the middle of the pot, heaping it up like a teepee shape, three or four scoops. The bottom damper is half closed, the stack damper is almost shut to contain the heat of combustion. After a while I found the coal creates an inner cone shape that's mostly hollow I guess due to air flow from the bottom. When I reload more coal, I used the scoop to push and prod this cone down so when I shake the grate something comes out. I also open the damper and use a small 5/16 inch pipe bent into a ninety degree angle to get in between the slots in the bottom of the stove to rake out burnt coal particles. I do this until some orange hot particles come out then close the shaker grate so I don't lose the whole charge. With the lower damper door almost shut I can see an orange glow in the ashpan so I know the coal bed is re-establishing its air flow and there's blue flames coming off the newly added coal. I find I can get about six hours between grate shakings. My room temperatures vary from 84 to 92 on most days with a good draft.